The disclosed subject matter relates to methods and apparatus facilitating assessments of structural and electronic features, parameters, characteristics or any combination thereof using one or more unmanned autonomous vehicles.
Generally, inspections of structures and various types of objects is necessary due to wear and tear caused by weather or other environmental elements. Electrical characteristics are often also required to be regularly assessed. Issues arising out of power failures, electronic transmission faults, and non-isotropic radiation can require periodic or continual assessment to assure a reliable communications link with any number of users attempting to utilize the structure.
Typically, structures in need of constant inspection include railway tracks, cellular phone towers, roads, bridges, dams, electrical power grids, power plants, water treatment plants, high-rise buildings, and oil refineries, among others. Human inspection can be significantly aided by an automated infrastructure that can provide constant or periodic monitoring, especially in cases that may be deemed dangerous or expensive to conduct an inspection or monitoring task by one or more individuals.
Cellular phone towers have become ubiquitous as the rise of cellular phone use continues to rise exponentially. As such, the structural and communication health of a cellular phone tower has become of increasing importance. Cellular phone towers can be subject to numerous problems that require maintenance. One such problem is basic structural maintenance due to environmental problems such as weather, pollution, debris and terrain. Additionally, the cellular phone tower can experience communication problems due to electrical issues such as failed equipment, interference, or even atmospheric phenomena such as solar flares, etc. Manually inspecting cell phone towers can be very laborious due to their heights, and maintenance crews are often required to travel large distances (since the towers are preferentially kept out of view). Further, maintenance crews risk potentially fatal accidents from falling, electrocution, etc.